Monday, April 02, 2007

True confessions: Five books I haven't read

After seeing Lennard Davis's article "Huckleberry Who?" at Paper Chaser, I decided that full disclosure was in order. Has this ever been a meme? It should be. I give you herewith five books I've never read:

  1. The Lord of the Rings. Comment: Yes, I failed to read this trilogy at a time when everyone was reading it. No, I haven't seen the movie(s), either.
  2. Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook. Comment: I got so bored hearing people talk about this one that I never read it. Shorter Golden Notebook, based on interminable conversations in which people talked about it: Anna Wulf (or is it Martha Quest?) is oppressed by men and domesticity, finds self.
  3. Anything Harry Potter. I did see one of the movies, though.
  4. Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain
  5. Shakespeare's Cymbaline

Davis says that Pierre Bayard "admits to giving lectures on books he hasn't bothered to read." How did he get away with that, and what's that magic pixie dust he used to do it?

7 comments:

Bardiac said...

Oh, but Cymbeline's pretty good! (Skip Hamlet, but not Cymbeline!)

Musey_Me said...

I haven't read 3 of those. You are cheating yourself by not reading Harry Potter and LOTR, though. (Okay, for LOTR, start with the Hobbit as a warm-up as it doesn't have as many names to keep up with for every character.) They are all really good!

undine said...

Bardiac, I think I may try Cymbeline this summer. Musey, I might not get to HP and LOTR this summer, but I know my time will come since everyone in my family is a fanatic about them, especially LOTR.

Another Damned Medievalist said...

Aha! Clearly you have also not read the fantastic David Lodge! In Trading Places, he introduces his readers to a game called Humiliation. One of the characters doesn't get tenure because of it! (well, mostly because he's a competitive ass, and so competitive that he admits to his English Department colleagues that he's never read "Hamlet"!)

undine said...

ADM, you're right; that makes another work I need to read.

Chaser said...

All right that's it, I'll go confess, too!!!

undine said...

Confession is good for the soul, Chaser!